Cruising to the Kingdom ~ Wait, What???

So the downside (the only one, actually) to the honor of your home state serving as a homeport for the Disney Cruise Line is while you're saving on the airfare to Florida, this means that you aren't going to Florida.

Wait, no Florida?

Let me repeat myself. You aren't going to Florida.
Which means you lose the bonus trip to Walt Disney World "while we're in the neighborhood."
Making the most of DCL out of Galveston, we scheduled a week long cruise over Thanksgiving and a six night cruise on May 4, 2013.

On August 20, 2012, just before the Magic arrived in Galveston and less than nine months until our May 4 cruise, the DIS-ers who had eight night cruises booked for spring 2013 received one of two emails.

Bad news first:
Half of the eight night cruises turned into back to back four night cruises with only a single stop in Cozumel, Disney helped move these cruisers to the remaining eight night dates, six night dates, let them stay on the original four night and refund the difference or refunded their entire cruise.

Good news:
The other half of the eight night cruises transformed the itinerary of a lifetime. Rather than an extended eastern Caribbean cruise, they would enjoy Key West, Castaway Cay and Port Canaveral alongside several sea days. Port Canaveral? Why would you want to go there? I mean there is NASA...but I'd never really considered going there for vacation.
Side note, the email informing the change had a wonderful addition. In Port Canaveral each cruiser could take advantage of complimentary buses to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and back to the port.



Two vacations in one!

Oh and free one day park hoppers for your party, too.
Free one day park hopper tickets.
Really?!?
Yep.
Before you can say "kids pack the bags we're going to Disney!" I dialed up Castaway Club, switched our May 4 six night cruise to an eight night cruise the previous week and contemplated not telling the kids were the cruise would be taking them.
I wanted this change to be a surprise from the kids.




Port Canaveral?
We're going to Walt Disney World!!!

As I was gearing up to surprise my husband, I wasn't sure how much I could keep a secret at once. As Ben (correctly) pointed out, the second we boarded everyone would be talking about going to Disney so we couldn't keep it until we got to Magic Kingdom like I'd wanted.
We told the kids. I think people from Florida could have heard the ruckus!
Kids' first trip to Walt Disney World and we still get a cruise?
Yes please!
This post is Part 1 of an Ongoing Trip Report Cruising to the Kingdom April 2013